A poet, novelist, and essayist, Alvarez writes about childhood memories and the experience of being an immigrant living between two cultures—drawing on her own family’s escape from the Dominican Republic after her father’s involvement in a plot against dictator Rafael Trujillo. Her novels include How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents and In the Time of Butterflies, the latter set during the Trujillo dictatorship and later adapted into a film. She is also part of Border of Lights, a movement promoting peace and collaboration between Haiti and the Dominican Republic.